Austrian Länder and Sub-National Constitutions

Austria’s federalism is determined by an apparent contrast between formal and real constitution. As for the formal dimension, Austria has rather weak federal structures. On the other hand, there are strong informal forces at work. As a result, Austrian federalism suffers from an unclear distribution of rights and duties between nation state and sub-national units. The paper proposed here will, in a first step, give an overview of the characteristics and ambiguities of Austria’s federal system, and the need of reform. In a second step, scope and limits of sub-national constitutional politics will be outlined. (In a brief digression the Länder’s increased turn towards selfrule coming along with recently established European groupings of territorial cooperation will be examined). The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential impact of present reform initiatives on sub-national constitutionalism and the changing relations between Länder and central state in the wider European context.